User Reviews

I was beginning to feel that somehow the Season 2 of Game of Thrones may not be able to live up to the expectations of the viewers, partly because of a couple of weak episodes in later half of the series and due to lack of the awe-factor which TV viewers had experienced during magnificent events of Season 1. But the Blackwater episode more than made-up for those inadequacies and Valar Morghulis brought about a thrilling conclusion to a very solid season.

This episode is specially remarkable given the fact that many plot arcs depicted here are distinctly different than the books and yet somehow, despite being a loyal book reader, I felt that those changes have made the story lines even more interesting. There are subtle hints which give a glimpse of what is about to come in this epic saga, which all culminate into a spectacular climax (that is all I can do not to give away any spoilers).

I really don't know how anyone can stop themselves from picking up the 3rd book of the series after watching this episode.

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This is Game of Thrones, always setting high standards..and after a jaw-breaking episode of last week, this week's episode provided enough spine chilling scenes to fill our appetite... Season Finale which actually gathered 4.2 Million Viewers on its initial airing broke another record as its now 2nd most watched TV show on HBO ever.. The only thing bad about GoT is, that it has 10 episodes a year, i would prefer a regular 13 episodes a year.. now we have to wait another 10 months probably, for Season 3...its a good idea to start reading the books in the hiatus... and one last thing " Winter is Coming ".. it may come earlier than anyone thinks as we saw a sign of it in the Finale

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First, the latter. This episode, was spectacular. Dropping the single event style of last weeks - battle of blackwater, the show returns to its many storyline style. Season 2 story arks such as Jon's, theon's, Dany's, Tyrion's and Arya's are completed and the stage is set for story's such as Sansa's, Jaime's, Robb's and Bran's to become more interesting in season 3.

Individual scenes; well of course the final cliffhanger (zombie apocalypse scene) was amazing, I loved the scene between littlefinger and Sansa in the throne room (both Aidan and Sophie are incredible at acting), Alfie Allen's scenes were as always fantastic and also the scene between Tyrion and Shae, which almost made me cry. Scenes that they could have done better were the surrounding and burning of Winterfell; which they didn't explain well at all. That it was actually Ramsay Bolton who burned in and not the Greyjoys. The house of the undying, could have been better though it was better than i thought. Should have had more foreshadowing - as it did in the book.

Stand out performances include, Alfie Allen and his amazing speech, John Bradley's fear in the white walker scene and Emilia Clarke for finally showing her true awesomeness that we haven't seen such the season 1 finale - when she locked her traitor handmaid in that room, I got chills.

Rightio! Season 2 has been all in all, a slightly weaker season than the first, though this probably should have been predicted as its based upon Clash of Kings which is basically the build up to book 3, book, and is widely considered to be the second weakest after Feast. That said, it was still awesome. Tyrion's kings landing scenes were brilliant, As well as Theon's greyjoy scenes and finally Arya and jaqen, Arya and Tywin...well Arya and everyone. :P

Stand out scenes, include that awesome scene at the end of Blackwater - flashing between Cersei telling Tommen the story and Tyrion blacking out as his father rides in...actually scrap that, the whole of Blackwater! Also Theon being rejected by his father, burning the letter and then getting baptised and Jaime's amazing Honour and vows conversation with Catelyn.

Stand out acting this season from Alfie Allen as Theon, Sophie turner as Sansa, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion, Jack Gleeson as Joffrey and Maisey Williams as Arya. The only reasons this season fell down compared to the last is occasions of not giving all the info in the writing which confused the new viewers, less action, minus Blackwater of course and occasions where Dan and Dave deviated from the source material and it didn't pay off. The prime example of this is Jon Snow's story which I think is stronger in the books.

In conclusion though, these are only little niggles, this season is fantastic. Fantastic writing, storytelling, acting, scenery, cgi, battles and character development. A must watch for those who haven't. Season 1 - 10/10 season 2 - 9/10 season 3 - will undoubtedly rise back to 10 as it is based upon the strongest book in the series - storm of swords. Thanks for reading, hope this is useful. x

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I don't know what the disapproving reviewers were watching but it must not have been this, or they just wouldn't know good TV if it smacked them in the face... with a hammer...

This is another wonderful season ending, leaving me wanting for more, the graphics are spectacular, on par with any major Hollywood Blockbuster. The scrip is superb, after each sequence and scene change I wanted to go back and find out what happens next, but would as quickly become immersed in what was happening now. The acting is wonderful as ever, each character makes you hate them, love them, feel sympathy as the director chooses. The Mise-en-scene is also excellent, everything from the decor to the costumes, lighting and so on make you believe this world is there and these events are unfolding before your eyes. And the cliff-hanger I feel is more interesting than last seasons, we are getting closer to the really big events! I want the third season now! But I guess reading the books will have to do.

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Tyrion is not rewarded but ostracized instead. Joffrey rewards Lord Tywin, Littlefinger and Loras Tyrell that asks Joffrey to marry his sister Margaery and he puts Sansa aside. Sansa is happy for his decision, but Littlefinger advises her that Joffrey will not stop bothering her and offers to help her to escape from Ling's Landing. Robb marries Talisa despite the advice of Catelyn that is against. Brienne saves Jaime from three Stark men that have recognized him on the road. Theon and his men are under siege in Winterfell and Dagmer stabs Luwin with a spear; hits Theon and they flee, burning Winterfell to the ground. Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie cross paths with Jaqen. He tells to Arya that he is going to Braavos and invites her to go with him. The say farewell to each other and Jaqen calls Arya Stark by her name and changes his face. Daenerys enters in the House of the Undying and is tempted by the Iron Throne; by Drago and her son; and she finally finds her three dragons that burn Pyat Pree to ashes. Then Daenerys finds that Xaro is a liar and does not have a fortune and she locks him and his lover Doreah in the safe. Jon and Halfhand have a sword fight provoked by Halfhand and Jon kills him, earning the confidence of the Lord of Bones. Sam is left behind and sees an army of wights and White Walkers heading to the Fist.

"Valar Morghulis" is the grand finale of Season Two or a great beginning of the next season? Tyrion's fate is a great deception since he was the responsible for defending King's Landing. The journey of Brienne and Jaime is promising. Will Theon succeed to escape from Stark lands? Jaqen is the great mystery for the next season. Daenerys's dragons are really a great menace for the Seven Kingdoms. Jon now is close to the Wildings and we will see how he will be affected. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Valar Morghulis"

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As I have said before, I am not a particular fan of swords and sorcery style stories, full of long names and even longer genealogy charts to help you keep track of who is who; it isn't a genre that ever has me searching for more even if I have enjoyed it in some instances. That said, I am a fan of well told stories that engage me and surprise me in equal measure, and it is for this reason that I came to the second season of Game of Thrones and is also the reason why I will feel every month until I get to watch the third season and continue all these stories.

With the first season I felt it took me a minute or two to get into the tone of the show and also understand the basic characters enough to be able to get caught up in what was happening; with the second I had no such time and I was keen to get back into the battle as various armies marched across the land while small threats build overseas and political betrayal is embedded in every conversation of those seeking power for themselves. The war means that the second season has a much larger and perhaps simpler agenda but at the same time there are plenty of smaller moments and manoeuvring of characters that I continued to find as enjoyable as I did unpredictable. Not having read the book and being keen to avoid spoilers, all the various twists and turns of the plot was news to me, whether it be the turn of the war or the specifics of an individual character, and each story arch held me easily with no one thread being of more interest than another. The only obvious downside of having so much to squeeze in is that occasionally there are gaps in threads that are just left to save time – this is best seen in the final episode where several characters go from one situation to a different location without it really being clear how they did this. I imagine this "squeeze" effect is much harder for those coming from the books to the show.

That said, the season is impressive in how well it does this with relatively little time on each thread. Every second and every line of dialogue is important and are therefore mostly used very well to deliver character, motivation and also plot. The cast respond to this well and even the smaller characters are played in such a way that you are interested in them, which helps the nature of the telling where one cannot be sure who will live and who will die considering that characters who appear to be "main" can quickly be dispatched and forgotten within a few episodes if the plot turns in that direction. Generally I was impressed a lot more this season as characters grew and developed. Dinklage continues to give a great performance and is my favourite in terms of colour, although only marginally more than Gleeson, who delivers a monstrous c*** who is as arrogant as he is ill-suited for this role as King. Headey has grown on me more this season, as has Coleraine-girl Fairley. Likewise Allen, Harington, Gillen, Madden, Glen, Clarke and others all do strong work across their characters – too many to mention in fact, it is a real boon of the show that there are so many characters and yet I am interested in all of them and all of their threads.

The production looks great as well. I'm sure those who know the books inside out will complain about the presentation of some of the larger battles but for me nothing here felt limited by budget – it all felt like they did it that way because this was the way that worked best. Costumes, sets and locations all continue to be great and I got a nice kick out of this season being the first time I recognised somewhere they had used (Pyke being the nearby Ballintoy harbour in Northern Ireland). The gore and the nudity are excessive but they work because they fit with the excessive and colourful nature of the telling and the grand, gaudy sweep of the bloody tales.

Season 2 of this show doesn't disappoint. It delivers an engaging overall story with loads of threads and seeds for future threads and does it in a way that makes it all look easy. So much going on could easily have seen the show have weaker threads that annoy for taking up time but this doesn't happen and even though some characters and threads have lesser time, I was interested in all of them and in their threads. Not knowing the books really helps as well since no character are pushed to the fore or seem immune to the bloody and cruel twists of fate that are common here. Great show – a year will be a very long wait for the third season.

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What a masterful bit of writing. I am in awe of writers who can keep such a ship afloat. What do they do? First, they develop fascinating, multi-dimensional characters. Next, with all the different kingdoms somehow engaged, they create a balancing act that is believable and carefully crafted within the world Martin gave to us. Thirdly, the dialogue is excellently crafted, with wit on the one hand and mayhem on the other. We have the beauty of a series where the bad guys often get away with things, where retribution doesn't always work. Where people die, even though they seem to be principles in the show. I cannot wait to see how things play out in Season 3.

In season two's last episode, King's Landing gets a thorough update that includes a new Hand of the King, a new Queen for Joffrey, and a new alliance for Sansa. On much bigger scale, however, are Daenerys' dragons making for fiery tumult in the city of Qarth, Samwell Tarly encountering well-disposed white walkers on his little nature hike, and just by the way, Winterfell burning down. Now that explains the additional ten minutes for "Valar Morghulis".

Things are quickly back to normal for most of King's Landing's residents and Joffrey is all love, peace and harmony when naming his gramps Tywin the new Hand of the King – who is as cool about that as his horse is about defecating right in the Red Keep. Right afterwards, Ser Loras Tyrell had the impudence to propose his ambitious sister Margaery to the King and that unpredictable tike just dropped Sansa and decided to wed Renly's widow. You know, that reckless "whatever" attitude young people have nowadays. Sansa, apparently not that overwhelmed by The Hound's offer to take her back to Winterfell in "Blackwater", now has the next guy volunteering for a ride to her home – Petyr Baelish, new Lord of Harrenhal (oh right, Joffrey disposed that as well). I'm not entirely sure how the girl is going to decide since Littlefinger does seem a bit creepy when he's subliminally incorporating his lusting for her mother every time he talks to Sansa.

In less splendid chambers, Tyrion wakes up with – nah, you didn't expect that – Grand Maester Pycelle standing in front of his bed. That mendacious old fellow whose talking pace is about one word every five seconds is feeling really great when fooling Tyrion in the same way Tyrion fooled him earlier this season. Varys and Shae too get to spend time with the scarred imp, who is understandably not too happy about his current situation. I'm still not sure if I should buy the emotions between Peter Dinklage and Sibel Kekilli though, that just doesn't really seem genuine to me.

In entirely unrelated business, the episode's gibberish title is thankfully defined – it's a phrase that the faceless joker Jaqen H'ghar made up just for kicks so Arya could find him. I've loved every single interaction between Maisie Williams and Tom Wlaschiha and their farewell in this episode (or is it?) is outstanding. That's not applicable for Jaqen's new face, however. Couldn't that guy find anything more attractive in Harrenhal's second-face-shop? It was definitely a great effect, though.

Now to the absolutely stunning stuff "Valar Morghulis" had in store: at first there's little Theon getting angry about his unwinnable position, but then he regains his self-confidence in a war speech that I actually found not bad, only to be betrayed by his own men. Well, that really wasn't the best season for Theon. Same goes for Bran and Rickon who relinquish their hideout, only to discover that their actual home is not really there anymore. So are the Greyjoy troops, miraculously gone with the wind, and Maester Luwin, suffering from a fatal wound in the Godswood. And even though he was never a very big character, Luwin's passing is extraordinarily touching and I feel that I'll miss his wise monologues in future seasons.

The best parts are saved up for the final quarter of an hour, namely the Daenerys and Jon Snow story lines. Say what you will about their scenes in season two so far (I personally reckon them to be outstanding), but how everything turns out for them in this episode is undeniably perfect. Daenerys gets more screen time than ever as she is put into a dream-like state in Pyat Pree's House of the Undying and enters three jaw-dropping venues. As Jason Momoa returns with their son, a new apex is reached in terms of how awesome a scene can be while still having subtitles, and her reconnoitering a snowy version of the Throne Room had visuals too amazing to describe in words. But no, best part of the episode is still not reached and the Khaleesi is back to the real world and meets the aforementioned scary warlock who is, to his detriment, unaware of the fact that dragons can spit fire and dies one off the greatest deaths in the series. You go, Daenerys' dragons! Not enough of them still, and after the bogus King of Qarth whose name is clearly too long to write out gets locked up for death in his own, sadly empty, treasury together with Doreah (her dishonesty is only a surprise if you haven't watched the Blu-Ray Easter Eggs), the Mother of Dragons walks off with her three children (her words, not mine) on her shoulders, which is almost too cool to watch, seriously.

But no, the episode's apex is still not reached and it also isn't Jon Snow killing Qhorin Halfhand (say wat) in the show's most touching, yet also most flawless swordfight. The first view of Mance Rayder's abode comes quite close to the top on my "The 50 best things in Valar Morghulis" list, but it really is the final shot that makes "Valar Morghulis" the second best Game of Thrones episode until that point (I ultimately prefer "Winter Is Coming" even though not a single person on Earth agrees with me). The White Walkers approaching the Fist of the First Men is mind-blowingly good and one of the best zombie scenes in TV and also movie history. Left-alone Sam (he is quite a klutz, admittedly) seeing all of this in indescribable awe enhances the intensity additionally and then he sees him: the White Walker on a dead horse (a White Warmblood, right?), which is the shot that spread all over the internet. Understandably, considering it's just freaking awesome. So is most of the rest of this episode. It's not perfect, but it's damn close to it and it deserves a 10 since you'll never forget it.

Apparently Sansa didn't take up The Hound on his offer, which makes me feel significantly less bad for her. Now she is just a piece to get Littlefinger laid by her mom. Joffrey has a massive army now, and Tyrion has been pushed back out of the main picture.

Daenyrus finds her dragons, who may be small, but have learned how to pack a punch, and suddenly she becomes a real contender to be the real winner at the end of all this.

Jon Snow proves his awesomeness as he kills one of the greatest rangers alive, after said ranger tried to back stab him, literally, like a jerk. Now the wildlings understand his level of awesome and it seems him taking over their massive army is inevitable.

Speaking of massive army, the winter people have also make their appearance and could seriously hurt Jon Snow's chances. It's too bad it looks like they're about to fight each other instead of bonding together against the inbred rat, like they should. Hopefully Daenyrus falls in love with Jon Snow and then he can have the dragons behind him (which would come in handy for people who only die with fire...).

I couldn't see anyway that Season 2 was going to live up to the 1st Season, for me, Season 1 was faultless. Game Of Thrones: Season 2 did a solid job in continuing the fantasy epic, it built on the characters very well, moved along at a pleasant pace and stayed true to its roots with its impeccable dialogue and story-telling.

As a whole, the season is quite slowly paced, dedicating much more time to character building. The introduction of new characters is always a tricky task, especially introducing several in a short space of time. Within the first 3 episodes we are shown 6 or 7 new characters, many of which go on to have very important roles in the up and coming seasons. Existing characters which got little screen time in season 1 are also given larger roles whilst also focusing heavily on the already established characters from the previous series. Tyrion is featured heavily in this season building on his likable reputation even more while other characters are given more screen time and you really start to despise them. John Snow, Arya, Theon and Joffrey all especially stand out for me with solid performances and important story lines. A TV show has never had the ability to make me dislike certain people as much as Game of Thrones and Season 2 goes a long way to making this happen. Even the small-time characters which have little screen time have a remarkable knack of being interesting and intriguing – nobody feels out of place or unnecessary.

The production from start to finish looks great, the sets, CGI, costumes and locations are all perfect again. Watching this show in HD with a decent surround sound system is quite the experience! Season 2 is gruesome and explicitly violent, contains strong nudity, strong language and delves deeper into the fantasy realms than its previous series. It isn't as strong as season 1 but it is a strong second season, offering everything that you would want. The story is told perfectly and the introduction of many more characters is implemented faultlessly.

The pacing is spot on and scenarios start to unravel very nicely, tension is built and many questions are left unanswered – making you want to keep on watching! Daenerys scenes can get a little tiring and repetitive but this part of the show is very important for future episodes and when looking back, the character development you see of her is very significant.Season 2 ends on a strong note, exploding in episode 9. Previous episodes build up to this perfectly and the climax doesn't disappoint. With an estimated budget of $8,000,000 for episode 9, it shows off its power with an incredible battle scene, you forget that you are watching a TV drama, with a budget like that, it's an easy mistake. Episode 10, gets back to normal and ends the season on a strong note, a real cliff-hanger, giving you a small taste of what is to come!

My only real negative from the whole season was the Daenerys storyline, I felt that it started to drag a little towards the end and the climax felt a little flat. However as I said before, looking back on this storyline, you really get to see significant progression in her character which is very important for future seasons.

Overall, Season 2 is weaker than Season 1 but that was hardly a surprise for me as the first Season is one of the strongest I have ever seen out of any TV show. Season 2 does however build characters very strongly with many characters stepping up with much more screen time and fascinating stories. It includes various, very strong plots and answers questions from the previous season, contains some very solid stories and leaves key questions unanswered for future episodes.

Came to 'Game of Thrones' fairly late in the game and due to being so busy the binge-watching was gradual. Have found myself truly loving the show, very quickly becoming one of my favourites. It totally lives up to the hype and not only does it do the brilliant source material justice (a rarity in television) it is on its own merits one of the finest, most addictive and consistently compelling shows in recent years and quality-wise it puts a lot of films in recent years to shame.

Season 2's last episode "Valar Morghulis", meaning "all men must die" as explained in Season 3's "Walk of Punishment", is a grand finale for a very strong season. It is not quite as spectacular as "Blackwater", for me the "Baelor" of Season 2, but everything that is so good about 'Game of Thrones' is in full throe and to exceptional quality.

'Game of Thrones' has always delivered in the acting. "Valar Morghulis" is no exception. Peter Dinklage is a fan favourite for very good reason and Tyrion continues to be one of the show's most consistently interesting characters. Alfie Allen is also splendid, Theon very nearly rivalling Joffrey in the nasty piece of work department, not quite though, Joffrey is as reprehensible a character as one can get.

Visually, "Valar Morghulis" looks amazing. The scenery is throughout spectacular, the sets are hugely atmospheric and beautiful on the eyes with a real meticulous eye for detail and the costumes suit the characters to a tee. The make-up is beautifully done. The visual effects are some of the best of any television programme and are not overused or abused, the scale, the detail and how they actually have character and soul are better than those in a lot of the big-budget blockbusters. As well the cinematography and editing, which are cinematic quality as well.

One cannot talk about "Valar Morghulis" without mentioning the thematically, orchestrally and atmospherically multi-layered music scoring and the unforgettable main theme. Again, worthy of a high-budget fantasy/action/drama film.

It is hard not to be bowled over by the quality of the writing, outstanding isn't a strong enough adjective to describe how good the writing is once again. It always has a natural flow, is layered and thought-provoking and demonstrates a wide range of emotions such as suspenseful tension, poignant pathos and wit. The story is paced beautifully, structured with such nuance and attention to coherence, a high emotional level and is done with intelligence, passion and sensitivity.

There are quite a number of surprises and one cannot imagine a more ominous final scene than the one here.

Can't fault the direction either. Nor the writing or development of the characters, most shows could only wish to have characters with this amount of depth and complexity.

After his action in saving the city one might have thought that Tyrion Lannister would be hailed as a hero; but no his part in the victory is ignored and his father is proclaimed the city's saviour. When Tyrion wakes he discovers that he is also no longer the Hand of the King. As battle honours are handed out Lord Baelish is rewarded for his loyalty and Joffrey sets aside his promise to wed Sansa Stark to become engaged to Lady Margaery Tyrell. Meanwhile in Winterfell Theon and his small force of Iron Islanders are besieged by a superior force; Theon gives a rousing speech but his men have had enough of him and have no intention of dying from him far from the sea. Across the Narrow Sea in Qarth Daenerys enters the House of the Dead to retrieve her dragons; here she will endure a series of visions before being reunited with her young dragons and facing her captors. north of the wall it looks as if Jon Snow has betrayed the Night's Watch and the White Walkers are on the move; heading towards the wall! Elsewhere Arya says good bye to Jaqen H'ghar, Robb marries Talisa, despite his mother's warnings that it will have consequences and Brienne of Tarth must fight a trio of Stark soldiers to defend her prisoner.

After the amazing battle scenes in the previous episode one might expect things to be less dramatic while there is less action there is still some and more is promised. The best of the action was Brienne's fight; Gwendoline Christie makes us believe that her character would have little difficulty dispatching three soldiers. Peter Dinklage continues to impress as we see Tyrion coming to terms with the fact that his part in the victory will be totally ignored and far from being rewarded his status is considerably lower than before. The scenes north of the wall nicely lead us to question Jon's allegiance and the final scenes remind us that Winter is Coming and along with it the White Walkers. Equally the scenes in Qarth are enjoyable as Daenerys enters the mysterious House of the Dead and later we learn just what Xaro Xhoan Daxos has in his impregnable vault. There are plenty of other interesting scenes each hinting of things to come.

This episode brings season two to an impressive end; wrapping up some plot lines and beginning some new ones that will undoubtedly be important in the future episodes. I'm sure viewers will be keen to see what season three brings.

So it ends as it did in season one of A Game of Thrones: Danaerys Taergaryan shows herself in all her glory as the Mother of Dragons.

After several episodes of whining and bitching and going around in some weird couture that didn't strike me as fitting the last remaining Blood of the Dragon and a Dothraki Kaleesi, Daenerys Stormborn foreshadows what is to come in book five of A Song of Ice and Fire, A Dance of Dragons.

So at the end of Season Two of HBO's flagship series, here's where we're at:

-Catelyn Stark releases Jamie Lannister to negotiate her daughters' release at King's Landing (she doesn't know that Arya isn't there because Littlefinger lied. As usual.). She sends Brienne of Tarth as his escort.

-Rob Stark, King of the North, has married Talisa instead of the daughter of Walder Frey, like he promised.

-Tyrion is no longer the Hand of the King, and he has just learned that Sersei tried to have him killed in battle

-Danaerys is about to cross the narrow sea to Westeros

-Geoffrey Baratheon announces he will make Margery Tyrell, the wife of his uncle Renly Baratheon and sister of Laurus Tyrell, Renly's lover, his queen instead of Sansa

-Theon Greyjoy is taken back to his homeland of Pike as a prisoner by his own men

-Stannis Baratheon sees a vision that Melisandre shows him in the fire, which we assume is his ultimate victory

-Jon Snow has killed Quorin Halfhand, a brother of the Night's Watch, and is now being taken to the King Beyond the Wall, Mance Rayder, who is poised to attack the South.

I was a Giant Fan of this show the first season. It had all the elements that make a great series. Season two however, is a far cry from season one. This episode in particular has gone down the path to Grandma's house, and took a Dump. Since these episodes are being adapted from Novels of the same name, we really can't fault the Script Writers too much for this mess; however, the Directing has not done anything to improve the story that seems to have been stretched out way past it's Due Date. The magic elements in the first season were tastefully and carefully placed in the story when and where they were an asset. Now this TV Franchise has turned into a bad Halloween Movie. The Game is over.

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It's a funny thing with adaptations, you can never properly judge the people handling the adaptation unless they stray from the source material. Once that happens, depending both on the writing talent, and the quality of the original work, the adaptation could go in several directions.

It seems that this season has gone the way of almost total inconsistency. By that I'll use an example from this season. WHAT IS DEAD MAY NEVER DIE (03) was a terrific episode, perhaps one of the best in the series, and it was followed by GARDEN OF BONES (04) which is pretty mediocre.

It's clear, then, that as the writers stray from the source material (and they do, rather substantially, in the second half of the season) their mediocre talents stand out among the source material's already high quality.

The season started off quite well, however, with the first three episodes being quite strong, but then some perplexing adaptation choices and poor writing made the middle of the season quite mediocre. It did pick up again, but then the finale was an hour of anti-climaxes and half-climaxes, failing to do what the season one finale succeeded in: tying up loose ends with emotional momentum, rounding off character arcs, and setting up for the next season.

Best Episode: What Is Dead May Never Die (03) Best Actor: Alfie Allen

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Valar Morghulis wraps up the story lines left by the previous episodes perfectly and sets Season 3 up nicely. Sure it did drag a little bit longer, but it doesn't matter. Everything else turned out great.

The performances are still great, the character relationships are still interesting, the writing is really good, the story is well-done, the editing is sharp, the music score from Ramin Djawadi is still great, and the directing is still good. Also the script is still well-written as it gives the actors plenty to shine with their delivery.

Now that I've finished reviewing Season 2, I have three more to go if I want to catch up on the sixth. So, overall, classic episode and great set up for Season 3.

Plot In A Paragraph: Brienne continues on her journey with Jaime. Arya receives a gift from Jaqen and Jon proves himself to Qhorin. Tyrion awakens to a very much changed situation at Kings Landing as King Joffrey doles out rewards to his subjects. As Theon prepares his men for battle at Winterfell, Luwin offers him some final advice.

"Blackwater" was always going to be a very hard act to follow. The biggest battle ever seen on the show, written by George R.R. Martin himself. But as they rushed about from character to character trying to tie everything up it's a bit of a missed opportunity to end the season on a high point. It is not the worst episode the show has ever made, but it's a long way from being the best.

Overall it's been a good second season, my favourite storyline was probably Arya's and my favourite scenes were the ones that featured Arya and Tywin Lannister, or Arya and Jaquen H'gar. (I hope that's not the last we see of him) Another obvious one is Tyrion's storyline. I have been very vocal about my love for Dinklage, his scenes with Varys and Bronn were a joy. Bronn (Jerome Flynn) quickly become a favourite of mine, his banter with Dinklage is excellent.

I really like this show. Its characters and plot have me back time and again. Yet, this season finale has me disappointed. Two reasons. One is that I detest zombies. Any movies or television show which has zombies in it has my complete rejection. It is just too easy to resort to the undead to kill the masses or make for the villain. Zombies are not even in the realm of fantasy unless you are in a Michael Jackson "Thriller" video. The other reason is minimal but, when burning of a body on top of a northern mountain, you'd have to have some sort of fuel. There is nothing there but snow and rocks. They seem to have come up with the ability of start a blazing fire at a moments notice. This was too much for me and took me out of the moment.